END THE INHUMANE TREATMENT OF IMMIGRANTS.
On the morning of July 9th Dare to Struggle accompanied this family of five to their immigration court hearing in which ultimately Judge Newaz and the state’s attorney had already decided their case would be dismissed guaranteeing the family would be detained at court.
The judge told the state attorney to “write down, even just on a sticky note, what cases you’re going to dismiss.” In the case of the family their case was being dismissed since they had not filed for asylum in the “appropriate” time frame so the mother submitted a motion that asked to appeal their case out of detention. The judge quickly flipped through the document, not even opening each page fully, just to simply say “denied, all cases are dismissed you may now leave the courtroom” not even a minute after he received it.
The motion the family submitted was given to them just minutes before their hearing by American Gateways, who like usual was tabling outside of immigration court. They had already toyed with the family before, but we decided it would be smart to have this motion as a last ditch effort. We waited while their motion was filled out and were a few minutes late to the hearing since the American Gateways representative kept making mistakes, using white out, and having to ask the other rep on how to fill out the motion.
In the end the motion did nothing at all and right outside the court room the family was stopped by ICE thugs. The family was put on a bus and sent to a processing facility still within San Antonio. We decided to follow them out there and waited to get a call from the family since none of the staff at the processing center were being of any help.
In the time we waited outside the first processing facility we met another Indian family who also had ankle monitors, the parents did not speak English so their eldest daughter, who is not even a teen yet, talked with us and explained how uncomfortable her parents had been and how the state was also toying with their families fate. The fact that we had met another family facing very similar circumstances really underlined the urgent need to connect with more immigrant families.
We waited for almost six hours for the family to be released, now with ankle monitors for the next 30 days until their next court appearance. While in detention the family was told to “thank God” for their monitored release, that they were lucky, but what’s so lucky about being treated like a criminal? If the courts are treating immigrants like criminals and non-profits like American gateways continue to mess with their fates, where else are immigrants supposed to turn to? The same systems? At the end of the day the “legal” system discards immigrants as if they’re not humans with valuable lives, no organization playing by its rules will ever be able to defeat it.
As we continue to support the ongoing case, it is not lost on us that the judge could just dismiss their appeal once again, having them be deported which is close to a death sentence for them. This reality helps us put the fight against ICE into perspective; unless we are able to overthrow the current system, immigrants will continue to be subjected to bureaucratic hurdles that lead to detention in centers with deadly conditions and even torture. To win this fight we have to connect with immigrants and bring out their revolutionary spirit, no group or org divorced from that will be able achieve goals greater than those few we’ve already seen. Keep an eye out for more updates regarding the family’s ongoing case or join Dare to Struggle to help us support and connect with more immigrants in Texas.
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